Today, I want to share with you all my 2 favorite Devotionals! I'm super excited about this one because these are essentials for me, especially in staying balanced in terms of faith and spirituality.
If you're not familiar with devotionals (or as I call them: Devo, for short), these can be in differents forms, but that two that I will be talking about are a book and a phone app. There are also different styles: some have a more teaching style where they take a verse or chapter from the bible and expound on it. Whereas other ones are more words of encouragement and food for thought. The two I'm showing you today will be one of each!
1. First 5: This is an app available on both the Apple App Store of Google Store. It's by Proverbs 31 ministries and they go through different books of the bible and each day they go through one chapter from that book. Currently, I'm in Deuteronomy - but you can go through the other ones that are available on the app. What I love about this is it's more of a teaching devo because it goes into the chapters and talks about relevant issues/topics and ties it in with the chapters. Additionally, there is an option for additional readings, leave comments (it's a community), AND my favorite part: adding personal comments/thoughts on the reading for the day! I love that I can add a reflection and I can go back to it at a later date. This devo encourages you to spend the first 5 minutes in the Word of God, before getting bombarded with the demands of the world. As the app says: "First 5 will wake you up with a short teaching first thing in the morning, so you can exchange whispers with God before shouts with the world." (first5.org)
2. Savor: Now this one is a fun, real, encouraging, short and sweet devo. Shauna Niequist is upfront and real in this daily devo, where she highlights a verse from the bible and gives real life scenarios of how she's felt, and dealt with different things. When I've got extra time on my hands (which is rare), I would actually do both First 5 and then also read this one! As I've mentioned, since this is a shorter devo I would read this in the mornings that I'm in a time crunch (then read the longer one later). ALSO, this has some of Shauna's favorite recipes in it! This one really encourages you to savor the moments and people near and dear to you, no matter what you're going through.
There you have it - my top 2 Devos! If you have your favorite, leave them in the comments below :)
PS: If you're interested in the devo: Savor, click here.